More than 100 overseas workers have been recruited in the past year for Whanganui jobs which no New Zealanders could be found to fill.
Immigration New Zealand figures show 114 workers from overseas had "essential skills" work visas approved in Whanganui in the year to the end of March.
The Essential Skills Work Visa allowed people to work in New Zealand for up to five years if their employer had first checked whether any New Zealanders were available to do the work, according to Immigration New Zealand.
Figures showed 16 of those who had the visas approved in Whanganui were chefs, from China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, South Korea and Thailand.
Chef was the most common profession of those who had the visas approved in the past year.